Monday, August 14 – Thursday, August 17
— from San Juan County Communications —
The Mount Baker Road Reconstruction project will begin Monday, August 14 through Thursday, August 17. Expect long delays during daytime working hours.
Detour routes will be set up at the intersection with North Beach Road and at the intersection with Terrill Beach Road.
Local access will be accommodated. The roadway will be open to traffic at night.
Will there be easy access to Orcas Center??
So what is planned this time? I have heard rumors, but no solid information has been given to us who live in the area they are apparently planning to rebuild (whatever that means). Living on what will apparently be the affected section of Mt. Baker Road, I would of course like to know what is happening…
Lower Buck Mtn Road has been torn up for at least 6 weeks! Helmsman Way just finally reopened after 6 weeks! Upper Buck Mtn Road will be torn up until September or later. The ferries can’t seem to run reliability! The smoke is terrible! Now you tell me Mt Baker Road is scheduled for serious work! So this is living is on an island paradise. Hell!; I might as well live in NYC or Seattle!
Sorry; just venting!! Have a nice day if can.
It would be great if the County would tell us what and why
this is happening ? Heard that they will be tearing out the
work that was done a few years ago ?
Can that be true ?
Cost of this project ?
Many thanks to San Juan County Public Works for taking care of the two or three failing spots on this great new section of road!
The surveyors told me that the reconstruction is intended to straighten out the “curves” in front of the north Crescent Beach/ Mt Baker Road trailhead.
Appearenty somebody complained, so the County is going to tear up the whole road and make one of the straightest sections of road on Orcas Island even straighter. Good idea! The speeders will feel even more comfortable going even faster! Great way to spend taxpayer dollars, what?
I should mention that in early spring I heard a rumor that the roadbed had been improperly constructed (rumor said that the wrong substrate had been used). I called Public Works to clarify. I was told that no changes were planned.
Notably, it is not a rumor that Mt. Baker Rd was poorly constructed as evidenced by the patches at several locations which were applied shortly after the initial work was completed. This is a well known reality of the excavating companies on Orcas.
So now, the County is going to spend additional monies to straighten the road which should have been the original design just a few years ago. Perhaps our elected representatives should be asking why it has become necessary to expense even more tax dollars to correct this poorly designed roadway.
Who is running this railroad, anyway??
Pretty sure that the flaws in the roadway were the result of poor engineering that failed to address the existing substrate conditions. As to straightening the road… I really hope that isn’t the reason. We should not be rebuilding roads every 2 years because drivers are inconvienienced by turning that round thing on their dash board.